MN State Fair weekend

This past Saturday was Boston Scientific Day at the MN State Fair. For those of you who don't live in MN, you don't really understand what that means - the fair is a huge deal here! BSC sells tickets at a discount and gives free t-shirts to those who buy tickets so everyone can stick out at the fair. Then, if you're lucky enough to be "spotted" at the fair with your shirt on and answer trivia questions, you can win gift certficates. That is the ONLY reason I was wearing my shirt but we weren't spotted. So, the three of us looked super dorky!

Most of the food at the fair is deep-fried and comes on a stick. My favorite fair food is cheese curds - fried cheese. The big thing this year was fried cookie dough, but we didn't see the stand selling it so we missed out. I HATE two food items at the fair - the corn and turkey legs. As it turns out, both items were eaten right next to me - I was cringing! Some friends of ours joined us at the fair and we all had a great time!

In the Birthing Barn - a lamb

Newly born piglet - it was trying to stand and it was so cute! You could see it shaking from the effort!

Joel, Walt and Duane having pronto pups (basically a corn dog but made with a certain kind of batter)

I HATE those darn ears of corn! Allison and Duane enjoying their corn and me cringing!

On Sunday I dragged Duane and Olivia to the mall. Since Olivia is starting to walk around, I decided to get her some shoes for daycare. It was kind of hard for me to see her in shoes but she seems to love them!

Another walking video

Olivia is just cruising around the house with her little, pink walker! While she walks, she's always "talking" to herself - it's so cute!

Olivia is taking off!!!

Tonight's walk through the neighborhood

Duane wanted to try out Olivia's new carrier so off we went through the neighborhood!

this is our backyard

Another fun weekend

Yesterday we stayed around home and caught up from being on vacation - Duane washed his truck and mowed the lawn and I unpacked and worked on my 14 loads of laundry - which are not done yet, by the way! We decided to have lunch at a little cafe that we drive past several times a month - it's called the Swede Hollow Cafe. They have a great garden and the weather was perfect so we had lunch outside. Olivia scarfed down her grilled cheese sandwich and fruit salad. After lunch we stopped by the St. Paul Farmer's Market and bought some fresh veggies and flowers. Then, we ran to the grocery store and later met up with a friend who was visiting and went to Punch pizza. Olivia scarfed down quite a bit of her pizza, too, but it didn't surprise us because it was Punch pizza afterall!

Olivia and Daddy at Swede Hollow Cafe

Today we went out on the lake for a few hours. The weather was great - sunny and warm but not hot at all. We made a spontaneous trip to REI and purchased a backpack/child carrier. We so wish we had done that before vacation so we could have taken walks on the beach!

A couple extra photos from vacation

Alligator statue near Oyster House and shops

Goofing off with Grandpa at the Shrimp Basket (best place in Gulf Shores!)

Mmm...BBQ

Our 1st Family Vacation

Hello again! We just returned from a wonderful, family vacation in Gulf Shores, AL. I went there many times as a kid (and with Duane when we were older) with my family so it was really special to take Olivia there for her first summer vacation. We stayed at Seawind Condominiums with my parents and it couldn't have been more perfect! We flew into Pensacola and my parents picked us up - along with our mountain of luggage, car seat and stroller. I do need to mention one thing - the day before we left St. Paul, Liv started showing symptoms of another ear infection so I took her into the doctor and sure enough, another ear infection. This is the 3rd time she's had an ear infection before a trip! Packing on Friday night was tough for her, as you can see below.

Our condo was in a great location and had a really nice kiddie pool. We even had a 3rd bedroom but Liv wasn't fond of it so we ended up putting her pack-n-play in the laundry room each night....random, I know! The first day there she went down to the beach and the pool. The beach was fun but a little difficult with her - she's not walking yet so crawling in the hot sand didn't work too well. She was quite the beach babe, though!

Duane and his girls

After a big wave came up and splashed Liv in the face, she made it clear that she had had enough! So, we moved on up to the pool - which she loved. She espeically loved to drink the water - sick!

Dad carrying everything of ours off the beach - what a guy!

Grandpa was an excellent nap assister for Olivia - he would walk her around the parking ramp until she fell asleep and then we'd wheel her into the laundry room! This was seriously the only way to get her to nap!

Each night we all got cleaned up and went out to dinner. The first night we went to the Oyster House and walked around their shopping area. Here's Liv looking oh-so-cute! We also gave her ice cream for the first time after our dinner - she was not that into it, which was a disappointment! I'm sure it'll only be a matter of time, though...

Day 2 was spent at the pool again - Olivia enjoyed floating around in her floaty. Somehow we were able to get her to fall asleep on the beach, so we were all able to soak in the sun for a little bit.

Day 3 we went to the zoo in the morning! The Gulf Shores Zoo is pretty cute and Olivia seemed to enjoy herself. It didn't take long, though, and she was asleep on my shoulder. She seemed to like the white, baby tigers and waved hello at them. The meerkats liked her shoes and tried to grab for them - it was a little freaky!

Nice family zoo photo but Olivia is sleeping!

After the zoo we had some BBQ and headed back to the condo. My parents watched Olivia the rest of the afternoon and Duane and I spent some time on the beach. It was so nice to just sit and not have to chase after a little crawler!

Day 4 was the pool again.

Once Olivia saw this little girl, she took off crawling across the pool

"Drunk Grandpa"

Thursday was my mom's birthday so the girls went to the outlet mall in Foley and then had an afternoon on the beach when we got back, minus Liv, though. We sadly packed up our bags and had one last night of fried shrimp at Sea N Suds. Friday they drove us back to Pensacola and off we all went... 

We took some obligatory sea oats pictures, though - you can't go to Gulf Shores and not do this!